.a HANG TIME WEST – Dwight Howard adding the Warriors to the rolling credits of his little drama just became the best thing going in free agency. The sides are scheduled for a Monday pitch session scheduled in Los Angeles to either discuss their future together as a perfect match or figure out why anyone took the meeting in the first place.

The player who reportedly wants to get away from the Mike D’Antoni offense is fielding an offer from a perimeter-oriented team headed by perimeter weapon Stephen Curry. Dwight’s hypothetical arrival in Golden State would make dumping the ball inside one of the focal points, if not the focal point, of the offense. The group known for great locker room chemistry wants the superstar that isn’t known to help in that department.

This is great stuff even by Dwightmare standards.

But this aggression isn’t wholly bad for the Warriors. Get in the Howard sweepstakes, make a great pitch that can win points with agents down the line — the way that the Clippers failed to land LeBron James but laid the groundwork for the eventual union with Chris Paul – and gain credibility as a franchise just by making the list of finalists. Maybe they can shock the world, which is right in line with owner Joe Lacob’s approach of thinking big and bold.

Except that these are the Warriors of 2013, not 2011. They have something very good going, with a victory in the first round of the playoffs and a credible showing in defeat in the semifinals. They will need to give up at least two starters, and possibly two young starters with bright futures, to get Howard in a sign-and-trade with the Lakers.

Golden State obviously knows there is a commitment involved beyond the contract. That would almost certainly mean giving up, at very least, 40 percent of the starting lineup that just made a serious play for the Western Conference Finals. Maybe Andrew Bogut, no longer needed as the starting center, and Harrison Barnes?

But what if the Lakers insist on Barnes and Klay Thompson with an eye toward the future, with Andris Biedrins or Richard Jefferson as salary-cap ballast? The uncertainty is whether they like the idea of Howard as part of the bridge to the proposed new home in San Francisco or love the idea and will stop at nothing to move forward with Howard and Curry as the new foundation.

The Rockets and Mavericks, viewed as the most serious threats if Howard changes teams, can sign him outright. The Warriors need the Lakers’ involvement to get him, leaving L.A. with the leverage over Golden State. And leaving Warriors with a barrier to the Howard sweepstakes.

Then there is the chemistry consideration. If the Warriors get turned down, as heavy odds indicate they will, they can say whatever they want about Bogut being able to handle this with professionalism. But emotions come into play at some point, compounded now by a Yahoo! report that they have looked into trading David Lee. The notion that the front office would pick around the edges to improve the team but mostly just let the group in place get better with a healthy Bogut and experience for several young players in prominent roles is long gone.

There are more ways for this to go wrong for both sides than for a great connection, and sometimes just window shopping can become costly for a team.

No! The Warriors don’t need that Drama Queen.I’d sign him to the Lakers but it would be a huge waste of money if he keeps up that level of play.On the other hand he should go to the Rockets cause thats his best bet for now…

Howard and Harden or Howard and Curry is a great combination either way. It’s difficult to argue one is better then the other, but they are both dynamically a bit different.

Harden is a slasher and Curry is a perimeter knock down shooter though they can both do either or it’s just that where both excel in their individual offensive schemes best.

From a technical standpoint Howard has more experience in his career working alongside perimeter shooters though so Curry probably does have a slight natural chemistry comfort zone edge over Harden.

Now on the other hand Wade and Shaq is a perfect example of why Howard and Harden could be equally compelling because it’s a similar situation even though like Curry and Harden there are slight differences between Harden and Howard in relation to Shaq and Wade, but are similar enough that it could still very much work well potentially.

It’s all up to Howard on what he feels is the best fit for himself and where he wants to be, but I’d be more shocked if he signed with the Hawks, Mavericks, or resigned with Lakers then if he signed with Rockets or Warriors.

Technically Hawks wouldn’t surprise me a lot either because of the Howard and Smith have known each other since child hood plus Howard, Hortford, and Smith would be dangerous front court for any teams in the league that’s a lot of big combined talents.

I was just reading about the Golden State Warriors throwing their hat in the Dwight Howard sweepstakes, bad move. You have a young team that took the San Antonio Spurs to six games. With a healthy David Lee and Andrew Bogut they can possibly get to the Western Conference Finals. Why disrupt a team that a good team. Look at Dwight Howard’s past and now what he is doing playing with team owners minds. You have a good nucleus of young talented players. You can build on that and with a few added pieces to the bench, not telling what you can achieve. Getting Dwight will cost you about $30 million a year and he would want to be the focal point of the team. I just can’t see giving a center that much money and he can’t shoot free throws. He’s no Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing nor a Robert Parrish, With that amount of cash tied up for a long period of time, you want be able to sign any of your good players. Don’t do it, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Let Howard go to another team and watch what happens, then you can say “Glad we didn’t make that trade.” He will not make your team better, just the opposite “WORSE”.

I’m hoping the real target for the Warriors is Lebron next year, and are using the Indecision Part 2 to get the team in the mix, as a viable option for superstar players. The Warriors will have plenty of cap space next year, and won’t have to do a sign-and-trade to add a superstar player to the current team.

for the love of god this is a mess the warriors just should not get involved in. keep curry, thompson, and barnes together and just watch the great things happen. Look back at the playoff run this team needs the experience of another season together to really click. I have high hopes for barnes and i want to see him stay in the bay. howard isnt worth it

They need a big man to take them to the next level. They beat a Denver team in the 1st round and lost to the Spurs with Duncan averaging 20/10+ every game. Granted Lee was hurt and Bogut wasn’t 100% but Bogut and Lee are undersized centers. When you play in the western conference you will run into the likes of Memphis, OKC who can beat you both with the front and back lines. David Lee and Bogut aren’t great lane rim protectors and they sure can’t bang with the big boys like Zebo/Gasol so shoot as many 3s as you want but the second they run into a team that plays inside out, they got no shot of winning. Dwight is worth Thompson anyday of the week. He gets you rim protection and boards and an inside presence.

It’s funny how bad people talk about Dwight saying he’s overrated and acting like he’s so injury prone now lol. The man was not suppose to play until around Jan. of THIS YEAR. He came back and played almost the entire season and led the league in rebounds, 2nd in field goal % and 5th in blocks while getting in shape during the season! At the end of the season he was gearing back into shape by moving, jumping and starting to look like the old Dwight. He will be back to his normal self this season impacting both offense and defense the way he’s been thru out his career. I want him back with LA but whatever team he ends up on he have a Major impact for them like he did in Orlando.

im a warriors fan and i really like the team they have right now… but.. i remember charles barkley said that the warriors cant win in shooting alone.. in my opinion i agree.. chemistry wise they can still win.. but in my opinion i would not mind trading thompson and bogut… besides curry and jack, barnes was the player stepping up in the playoffs and you can see him getting better.. thompson on the other hand is consistently inconsistent with his game..and makes me question just a little bit…we know that dwight has his back problems but how bout curry’s ankles? and bogut has injury issues as well so we cant just criticize this trade based on injuries.. i believe mark jackson can help dwight howard because he is an understanding coach…so im finallizing this trade making it..

The rate that FA is going and talk of players like Andre Iguodala and Josh Smith going for reportedly close to max contracts the NBA will be forced to have another lockout in a few years , the owners can not help themselves from signing bad contracts.

i’m not sure that d12 would fit here but i might explore a sign and trade for jsmooth harrison barns is a good young talent but i think jsmooths defensive mindset and energy would help this team a great deal. i would try to get gortot from the suns though bogot hasn’t been able to stay healthy so i would maybe use jack in a sign and trade.

Such hostility in the comment section heh. At first Dwight to Golden State sounded cool but after reconsideration it seems a bad move for the Warriors. They’ve got a good thing going with their core group of youth and general Mark Jackson. They got to the semis and David Lee wasn’t healthy. They need humble guys and maybe a couple solid role players not the “dwightmare” drama queen.

Bogut is still considerably an elite big man especially when he’s healthy (among active players), can be aligned with the likes of Howard, Bynum, J-Smoove, only difference is Bogut is THE REAL big man among those mentioned, he’s not a cry-baby, he’s a low-profile, low-salary, block and boards machine big man that the Warriors needed

they just need to be healthy (especially Curry, Bogut and Lee), if they feel a need for an FA name, they must chase the likes of Korver (raining 3’s off the bench, good synergy with Curry/Klay outside shooting), or Iguodala to make H-Barnes their spark off the bench with Jack (or vice versa)

then the maturity and playoff experience will come in and can finally be the king of the West (shouldve been last season already though, fortunate Spurs they got Curry minus healthy ankles and a depleted interior without Lee)

Howard is a distraction to himself. Curry and Howard combination would be deadly, but with a healthy Lee and Rush next season, the Warriors will be exciting. Landry I have no problem losing but they need to get Jack back. No huge changes needed. The Warriors look great for next year.

Howard was terribly inconsistent last year. Yeah, he can dunk, has some good offense points, nice alley oops, but when it came to decision time he mostly delivered a poor performance. This isn’t the Howard who led his team to the finals. Every team takes a big risk by employing him. Lakers have their aging roster with a quite bad bench. Howard is a risk to them because he is too expensive and hinders them in getting good bench players. The Warriors and the Rockets have young teams, they could surely use him, but at such a high price? I would only understand Dallas signing him, because the Mavericks are getting older and older and Howard may be their last chance to improve before rebuilding the whole team. Dirk has not many years to go as a pro basketball player in the NBA. So Howard is like an expensive lottery ticket. You can win but the chances are relatively small.

go for it!!!
houston or gs
think of it howard dominating inside and curry and co. shooting 3’s………………dwight gets doubled……nowere to go….outside to curry for 3……..BANG!!! u’d hear that alot if he went to golden state

Being a fan of both the Warriors and the Lakers, I wouldn’t mind a Howard for Bogut and Barnes trade at all. Barnes does have the potential to be a Superstar, but that won’t happen for at least another 2 years. Dwight will instantly provide an inside scoring presence that Bogut can’t really provide. Imagine having the two best shooters AND the most dominant inside presence in the league? The Warriors would be unstoppable. I would guarantee you Jarrett Jack would sign back for less money and so would Landry. Golden State becomes an instant championship contender. And as for the Lakers, they will slowly build the team around Barnes and become a top team in 2-3 years.

He’s a Laker fan that doesn’t hate the Warriors. So he is both. Not a TRUE Warrior fan….that’s how. But Warrior fans everywhere should not even engage in this blog other than to Say, KEEP DWIGHT IN LA, We prefer to go further into the Playoffs, not swept in the first round!!! Build on our team, don’t blow it up!

I will instantly stop following the Warriors if this happens. I can’t even begin to understand the twisted mentality of the person/people who think getting Howard is good for the team. Howard is a stain on the NBA. I’d take Barnes and Bogut any day of the week over him. Hell, I’d take Bogut over him. Especially after he got through a lot of the season and will hit pre-season not in rehab.

Come on, youve got a team that just made it from being the 13th seed in the west last season to making the western conference semis this season, have a bunch of young players like klay thompson and harrison barnes that can help make the warriors a title contender and now theyre just gonna destroy the whole team to get howard, which would even destroy the warriors locker room chemistry, and theyre fastbreak, three-point shooting game.The warriors should just leave the howard drama to the hawks, mavs, and rockets and keep this young, talented team together for next season

How about a sign and trade Dwight Howard to the Heat for Chris Bosh and Ray Allen? It would definitely improve the Lakers, but would it improve the Heat? Picture Steve Nash running high pick and rolls with Bosh and Gasol, If Kobe can make it back think of the spacing he would have with two bigs who can shoot having a shooter of Ray’s caliber to keep defenses honest? On the other end of this scenario would Dwight make the Heat a better team? honest question.

NOT AT ALL… Ray Allen is the reason they won. Chris Bosh as a small center is the reason they won. Good luck having DWade and Lebron drive the lane with Howard clogging the middle… He wouldn’t improve the team he would hurt the Team… Also welcome to business 101, when you have a winning strategy you don’t take huge risks! Pat Riley himself said, his goal is to keep the team as close to intact as possible…not even a consideration

It is still funny how the Warriors and Clippers are making plays for Howard when he is with the Lakers, it used to be the other way around. I am waiting for the Howard come to the Clippers signs to start popping up around LA LOL.

Why would the Warriors do this they have Barnes and Thompson on low wages and they work as a team they just need time and for Curry to be fit, plus they wont get Howard any way. But if the Lakers want a sign and trade cause Howard is not staying if you waved, Barnes and Thompson for Howard I would take it every day if I was the Lakers.

ive been surprised by this current free agency frenzy….for the reasons indicated here. WHY would GS even want howard? And of course players feelings come into play. Egos are bruised no matter what anyone tells you. And more to the point, its a longshot…and its maybe not even a very good idea. I dont get it…honestly. Sekou smith wrote this morning, well, Howard remains the best big man in the leauge. Id say that is more than a little debatable. Firs issue is his back. Can he stay healthy. Second is, he is a distraction and a locker room drama….everywhere he has been. And third………he hasnt proven to be a winner…..at all, and judgeing from one saw last season, for Howard to be effective means the entire offense has to be adjusted to fit his his real but very narrow talents-.

he hasn’t proven to be a winner?? didn’t he lead the magic to the nba finals to fall to the, at that time, dominant kobe/pau lakers? get outta here man you’re crazy. this past season he was a SHELL of what he was and what everyone knows him to be yet still led the league in rebounding coming off back surgery.

Wow did you just wrap-up everything from the video on this page, and actually feel proud for “knowing your facts”?
He has proven to be a franchise player, however like you said, he was and still IS a shell of what he used to be back in ORL.
I hope he does but who says he will get back to that level next season? Anyway GS shouldn’t go for him.. They have their pieces (young consistent players), just need some more depth and experience.

Why are they even tossing their hands in the ring?. For this team it doesn’t seem worth it. This a good team, just needs refining. They have good chemistry. Too risky. They don’t need the drama and that’s what they will get. Don’t get rid of Harrison. That isn’t the fantasy he imagined!!!!